Long story short, my old XJ got totalled out by an illegal so I'm rebuilding from scratch. One of my main complaints with my old setup was the front axle. D30 tubes bend easy, and I had put 3 sets of gears in it over the years. I have another HP30 sitting here ready to build as well as a complete HP44 out of an F250. The front axle in the old XJ was pretty well built for a 30 but it got bent in the wreck, however the gears, ARB, chromos and cover are salvageable. Both WJ knuckles and the steering got broke but I have another complete set of those laying around as well.

My issue with direct swapping the 44 is that it is way too wide, so I would have to narrow it to be in the ballpark with my 8.25 rear. I also do not like the design of the Ford brakes, and converting to the Chevy style isn't much better. I very much liked how it stopped before on WJ fronts and ZJ rears.

So do I:

A: Narrow the HP44, weld on some D30 C's with gussets and WJ knuckles, pick up some waggy, bronco or super 30 inners and run my old D30 stubs, buy ARB, buy gears

B: Narrow the 44 with stock old school brakes/hubs up front and spacer adapters in the rear, buy ARB, buy gears, buy wheels

C: Build another 30 with what I already got, and drive easier and roll on

I can see the D30 stubs being stronger than the 19spline D44 stuff, but the D30 C's weaker. D44 knuckles have the strength advantage over WJ by a little possibly, ball joints equal. I prefer unit bearings over wheel bearings, and don't really care as far as locking hubs go. May stay with 35's or possibly go back down to 33's.

Destroyer, did you sleeve or truss your old 30 in the past, and still had probs with the tubes? I am running a G2 Core44, which is basically a super beefed up version of the TJ Rubicon front 44. It would be kinda like your hybrid 30/44 idea. It has 30 spline inners , the stock TJ/XJ/ZJ knuckles, brakes, etc fit on the C's. - I am running the WJ outer knuckles with the spacer and brakes, a stock 2000XJ unit bearing and my 5x 4.5 method beadlocks. So your hybrid 30/44 idea is basically a TJ Rubicon D44 front.

The last 30 was inner sleeved, but no truss. Should have done one when I 3 linked it, but ran out of time. Either way the next axle will be trussed for sure. I twisted one inner chromo shaft in 16 years, but did replace the 4.56 gears twice. HP44 should move the weak link to the shafts/joints, but be pretty stout overall for my tire size.

My old 30 front was at ~62.75 wms with spacers, the HP44 sits at ~68.25 wms so definitely a bigger difference than I'd like. Definitely feel like the tube size and gear strength would be worth the loss in ground clearance though.